Aditus' prompts and circumstances - 5. The Dream/Prompt 310

The Dream

Tim looked up from his computer screen when his friend and colleague Mark, hurried through the door into their shared office.

"You're late."

Mark grunted something unintelligible while he hung his overcoat in their small closet. When he finally slumped down in his chair behind the desk opposite from Tim's, Tim could see dark rings under Mark's eyes. The man looked utterly exhausted.

"Hehe, someone had an interesting night, me thinks."

Mark scoffed. "I wish."

Taking a closer look, Mark looked almost haunted. Tim stopped what he was doing. "What happened?"

"I had a dream…"

"A dream?"

"Yeah, at least I believe it was a dream."

"Want to tell me about it?" Tim pushed his chair back and swiveled around so he could reach the coffee pot on the small table behind him. He poured some coffee into Mark's mug, added sugar and milk and placed it in front of his friend. "I heard it might help with intense dreams. Talking I mean. Reality check and all."

Mark didn't answer. Instead, he stared at his screensaver that showed various pictures Mark had taken during his countless rafting trips: abysmal ravines, soaring mountain masses, waterfalls and white-water rapids of fast-running rivers. Playing with the lighter he still had lying around on his desk from when he used to smoke, he didn't speak for several minutes. Tim finally assumed Mark didn't want to talk about his dream and started working again.

"I was in the desert. There were sand dunes as far as the eye could see. It was early in the morning; the grey-blue shadows of pre-dawn were just forced away by the first tinges of orange from the rising sun. I felt as if I had been there forever, for the sand was untouched; there were no traces of humans, or animals. No trucks, no camels, just me sitting in front of my tent, alone. It was cold. The morning stillness was absolute.

I didn't have a Bedouin tent like you see all the time in the movies; it was the small, flimsy tent I used to sleep in, in my parents’ backyard when I felt adventurous. In reality, I wouldn't even fit in it anymore.

So I sat in front of my childhood tent in the middle of a desert, a bowl with cereal in my hand, spooning soggy Fruit Loops into my mouth. It was the Sponge Bob bowl I loved so much, the one my sister smashed to pieces in one of her hissy fits. It even was chipped at the edge from when I had dropped it in the sink when I was six. The thing is, I hate Fruit Loops; that was my brother's favorite, I always had Honey Smacks without milk.

Then I caught movement from the corner of my eye. When I turned my head, an Arabian wolf stood on top of one of the dunes. With its large ears twitching, nose in the wind, it scented the air. When it came closer I noticed its poor state; its fur looked coarse and thin, and there were bald patches and bruises all over its body.

I should have been afraid. A wild, sick-looking predator was only twenty feet away from me.

I stopped eating, because the cereal smelled funny. When I looked into my bowl, I almost dropped it. It was filled to the brim with chunks of raw meat. I put the bowl down into the sand, stood up, very slowly, and took a step back, and then another one, until the wall of the tent stopped me. The wolf hesitated briefly, but then it came closer, sniffed at the meat and started eating.

While it was doing this, it changed in front of my eyes. It became bigger, more muscled, its coat became glossy, and the bald patches disappeared. It ate more then there could have been in that bowl.

When it was sated, I could look into its eyes. They had the most unusual color; they were deep teal. We locked eyes then it threw its head back, howled, turned and disappeared behind the dunes, without leaving any traces in the sand.

That was when I woke up."

Tim took a swig of coffee, which had long gone cold. "Well, yes, this really is a pretty unusual dream, but nothing horrific. To be honest, from the way you looked I expected something more gruesome."

"When I woke up, I felt sand between my toes and on the sheets. I thought I was imagining it until I swung my feet over the edge of the bed and saw the sand on the floor."

"You're kidding me, right?"

Mark looked up, and Tim gasped. Mark's eyes were deep teal.